


Double Trouble

by alecmagnuslwb



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, also sexy implications, but like exasperated fluff, two john constantine's is it zatanna's nightmare or fantasy or both
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:07:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27134321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alecmagnuslwb/pseuds/alecmagnuslwb
Summary: Zatanna finds herself with two John Constantine’s.
Relationships: John Constantine/Zatanna Zatara
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20





	Double Trouble

**Author's Note:**

> Flufftober prompt day 21: I Don't Understand.

Zatanna blinks hard praying that there’s some sort of backlash from the spell making her see double. But when her vision clears after a series of rapid blinks her eyelashes sticking together from the movement there’s no change to the view before her.

When she had yelled ‘ylpitlum’ casting her hands out at the dagger John had thrown at the beast before her she wasn’t prepared for the beast to use its last moments of breath before a dozen daggers pierced its skin to send a reverb of magic right back her way. John had grabbed her jumping in front of her and guarding her body with his own at the last second taking the hit instead.

And now, well now she’s dealing with this.

“I’m not sure if this is a nightmare or a fantasy for me,” Zatanna says looking at the two Constantine’s before her both sporting that same sardonic smile she’s fallen for over and over again. Her eyes flit between the two of them spotting no differences, they are exact copies of one another.

“Please say fantasy,” the John to her right says. He steps towards her at the same time as the one to her left. They both reach out to cup her cheek.

“Are you alright, luv?” the one to her left says running his thumb under her eye lightly. The one on the right looks annoyed that he beat him to asking, so he steps back patting down his pockets looking for his cigarettes.

“I’m fine,” she says watching as the one John lights his cigarette and the other keeps his eyes trained on her. “You’re the one who seems to not be.”

“Eh,” the one smoking says. He pauses taking a drag and shrugging his shoulders. “I mean I’ve been worse.”

Zatanna squints one eye and tilts her head in thought. He’s not technically wrong, he’s had way worse spells blast upon him, at least he’s still got all of his limbs attached. Double the limbs, really.

She pulls back from the John closest to her, his hand dropping from her face. She grabs him by the sleeve and drags him to stand beside smoking John. She situates them both standing perfectly beside one another and pulls the cigarette from the one’s mouth as he makes a grumbling protest that she ignores.

“Don’t move an inch,” she says stepping back a few feet from them. She raises her hands focusing her magic on the two identical men before her.

“Nruter meht ot eno,” she says and a burst of blue and yellow magic leaves her fingertips cascading over both John’s, she watches as it combines together between them and then, nothing, absolutely nothing happens. She huffs in frustration as the sparks fall to the ground, no change whatsoever.

“Well it kinda tickled,” left John says, it’s his turn to pull out his pack of cigarettes. He lights two handing one to his other self who nods in thanks before holding it out to her.

“You seem stressed,” he says with a cheeky smile. “It might take off the edge.” The other John nods in agreement.

Zatanna rolls her eyes and walks over to the pair. She takes the offered cigarette and flicks it across the room while never breaking eye contact with him.

“Hey,” he says watching forlornly as it goes, landing in a puddle and flickering out. The other John chuckles taking a long drag and purposely blowing the smoke in the direction of his other self.

Zatanna snatches his away too, just because. He stops chuckling frowning as she crushes it out beneath her heel.

“I don’t understand. That should have worked,” she says focusing back on the issue at hand.

Right John is the first to speak up.

“Maybe it’s cause we’re different essences, ya know,” he says gesturing a hand between the two identical versions of himself. “He’s my good side, I’m the bad side, or something like that.”

Zatanna scrunches up her nose at the theory. It would be possible, there’s plenty of spells like that out there in the world, but they’re behaving far too alike for that.

“No you're both being equally as annoying, I don’t think it’s a good side versus evil side situation,” she says placing her hands on her hips. They both smirk at her evaluation, proving they’re definitely the same John just duplicated.

She looks down at her hands playing a bit of colorful magic over them with a sigh.

“Whatever that thing did, it used my magic against me, which means my magic isn’t going to fix it,” she sighs again, just once she’d like some mission of theirs to go off without a hitch. Just once. She raises her arms pulling up a portal and pushing both of them through.

They pour out into the room the house of mystery has decided is a potion room and a library today. Both John’s move to take off their trench coats and Zatanna stops the one closest to her.

“Nope, the only way I’m gonna be able to tell the difference is if one of you keeps on the coat,” she says. The one with his coat already off smirks at the other one as he pushes the sleeves of his white shirt up to his elbows, loosening his tie a bit more.

The one still in his coat huffs and throws himself into a chair as the other situates himself on an empty table still smirking. Zatanna ignores them both heading to the bookshelves and pulling every book she finds that could have a solution. She tosses one at each of the Constantine’s, hitting the one sprawling across the desk a little hard in the stomach which cause him to let out a little ‘oof’ sound.

“Read. Find a potion or something that’ll put you back together,” she says placing a stack on another small desk and sitting down. She immediately starts going through them, dogearing a few that might work, or could be combined for best results.

It only takes about twenty minutes of reading before one of the John’s speaks up with a suggestion she knew one of them was bound to make eventually.

“You know there is one surefire type of magic to recenter auras and rejoin selves,” trench coat Constantine says tilting his head her way. The other one lying on the desk lifts himself up with a wicked little smile that already has her rolling her eyes.

“He’s right,” he says flipping himself so that he’s basically straddling the desk facing her way. “Ta-“ he starts and Zatanna immediately shoots him down.

“If you say tantric sex magic I will throw you both in a pocket dimension,” she says glaring at them both. They pout in response, the same puppy dog eyes he tries to give whenever he wants something pointed at her from two angles. It’s not working today though. 

“But it would probably work. Our magic with yours always yields excellent and intense results,” trench coat says shutting the book he was reading. “Plus, it’s fun.” Their faces light up with equally as hopeful looks.

“Yeah it might,” she says and they smile. “But, I’m far too annoyed with both of you already for that, so guzzling down a no doubt terrible tasting potion is what you’re going to get,” she says with a sunny smile. Their own smiles drop and hers grows.

They both grumble going back to their books as she does the same. It only takes a few minutes for her to work out a solution, she gets up flitting around the room for ingredients and combining a few spells together specific to her magic, the beasts and a few outside sources. She catches both of the John’s watching her as she moves, the flow of her coattails trailing behind her and the glow of magic tickling at her fingertips. It’s good to know no matter how many of him there are, he’s a captive audience when she’s around.

She spoons the mixture, a sludgy black and green thing, into two vials and corks them. She turns tossing a vial to each of them that they both easily catch one handed.

“Drink these simultaneously and yas eseht sdrow after,” she says flashing her hand across the space in front of her. The enochian words they’ll need to say appear in smoky clouds lingering for them to read.

They both come to stand beside the hovering words, uncorking their vials.

No coat Constantine pauses before he lifts it to his lips as the other him sniffs it with a grimace.

“You sure you don’t want to try the sex magic?” he asks her with a little smile on his lips. The other John’s head perks up with the same small smile.

Zatanna snorts out a little laugh. “Maybe some other time,” she says with a wink. She’s not lying under the right circumstances where she wasn’t so tired and annoyed, she might be down for the idea.

Both John’s chuckle. “We’ll hold you to that,” they say in unison before tipping their vials together in a toast and tossing them back. They read the words still written above and immediately the spell starts to work.

They both lift off the ground a little, a bright white blinding light encapsulating them both. Zatanna shields her eyes, lifting her arm when the light fades. Standing there where there was once two of him, is one John Constantine, trench coat askew, hair a mess, the wholly original genuine article.

“So about that maybe some other time,” he says, poorly straightening his tie. Zatanna picks up a paperback from behind her and throws it at his chest in response.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not saying they don't just try this spell out for fun sometime when she's not annoyed with him, but I'm not saying they don't either. 
> 
> tumblr: [alecmagnuslwb](https://alecmagnuslwb.tumblr.com/)


End file.
